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Revelation 1:17-20, Encouragement

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and Death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My hand, and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” (NKJV)

Isn’t it interesting, in Scripture, when people see the Lord or a demonstration of His power, they don’t get all excited and jump up and down. They’re more likely to fall down, in fear and awe, in amazement and wonder.

As one example, Isaiah saw the Lord, high and lifted up, Isaiah 6:1. His response? “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the king, the LORD of hosts,” v. 5.

We’re not given an example of what Isaiah meant by “unclean lips.” Because of the “fame” of Uzziah, 2 Chronicles 26:15, as a result of the things listed in that chapter, it could be that the people were lamenting his passing and saying, “What shall we do? Uzziah is dead. How can we replace him?” It could be that in the midst of this mourning and depression, Isaiah saw the LORD, reminding him that even though Uzziah might be dead, God was not.

This is pretty much the thrust of our text in Revelation. Now though no one was dead, John was in dire straits. But the Lord whom he served, and on account of whose word he was in exile, v. 9, was very much alive and in charge.

Who is this One whom John saw?

Hear His own testimony.

“I am the First and the Last.”

Someone else had already said that.

Isaiah 41:4, “Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, am the first; and with the last, I am He.”

Isaiah 44:6, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; beside Me there is no God’.”

Isaiah 48:12, “Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last.”

These three verses quote God speaking to Israel, telling them that He was First and Last.

In Revelation, Jesus applies this title to Himself.

He says, “I am the First and the Last.”

The original language is stronger: “I, I am the First and the Last.” As it were, He underlines the statement. He had already called Himself, “the Almighty,” v. 8. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that Jesus is never called, “Almighty.” According to them, He’s only ever called “Mighty God,” as in Isaiah 9:6. I don’t really see how this helps them. What kind of God is Jesus? And, then, how many “gods” are there, after all, if He is only a “mighty God” and not “Almighty”?

Was He deluded?

Deranged?

Deceived?

If He was any of these three, – if He is not God – then, in truth, He is no better than any of the founders of other religions. In fact, He might be worse; I don’t know that any of them actually claimed to be God.

If He is not God, then He was guilty of blasphemy and the Jews were right to want Him dead.

There are those who say that Jesus never claimed to be God, that such an idea was tacked on later by Christians. That is not true. The Jews who heard Him in John 8:58 clearly understood His claim. That’s why they tried to kill Him, v. 59 – and why they couldn’t. Indeed, that was the real reason He was crucified, John 19:7; Matthew 27:39-43.

Our Lord’s comment to John was “do not be afraid.” And throughout the rest of the book, with all the judgments, all the terrible things, that John saw, we don’t read that he “feared” again. His Lord was alive.

This is the crux of the matter. Resurrection was the “sign” that the Jews would be given that Jesus was who He claimed to be, Matthew 12:39, 40; 16:4; Luke 11:29. Matthew’s accounts follow two notable miracles, the healing of the demon-possessed deaf mute and the feeding of the four thousand (men only. There were likely several thousand there, counting women and children). Luke’s account gives our Lord’s denunciation of the Jewish leaders for their refusal to recognize Him and their demanding of “signs” – in the face of the signs they saw!

As far as the world is mostly concerned, Jesus is still dead, or might as well be. That is, if He even existed.

But the Cross is empty, and so is the tomb. Christianity is the only “religion” of which that can be said.

The tomb is empty.

The One who lay in it says, “I am He who lives,” v. 18.“I am the Living One.”

Now, He did die; He was dead. Literally, He “became dead.” There are those who blasphemously assert that He only fainted, or that there was some sort of a “Passover plot” in which the Lord faked His death. But it’s hard to imagine that the disciples would suffer all that they endured following a Man who had appeared to them barely alive.

You see, we don’t know the first thing about a crucifixion. We’ve cleaned it all up and sanitized it – made it “respectable”. We wear a cross as pretty jewelry. But there was nothing pretty about it, nothing “respectable.” In the first place, condemned criminals were often scourged before and as part of their execution. Our Lord was scourged, Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15. Again, we know nothing of such a thing. We’re all concerned about “the rights” of the poor criminal, regardless of how violent he is or how many horrible crimes he’s committed. We handle him with kid gloves. There was no such insanity with Rome. I’m not advocating harsh or unjust treatment of offenders, but perhaps less emphasis on them and more on their victims and what they did to them might be in order.

The Roman scourge was made of leather strips embedded with bits of bone. At least one description of a scourging tells us that the flesh and muscles of the back were torn away and one could see ribs. Some died because of it, never making it to a cross. Then there was the crucifixion itself. Crude spikes driven through wrists and ankles and the cross dropped into the hole made for it, jarring and tearing the already suffering body.

We know that Jesus actually died. He “became dead.” Pilate was astonished when Nicodemus came to ask for the body and sent a centurion to make sure that Jesus was really dead, Mark 15:44, 45. Those crucified sometimes lingered for days; it had been only a few hours with Jesus. The centurion wouldn’t have been a new recruit, but a hardened veteran, well-acquainted with what death looked like. It would have been his life if he had been mistaken or lied about it. In addition, there had been that spear driven into Jesus’ side, John 19:31-37. This had been because the Jewish leaders wanted the executions to be completed before the Passover began. What the soldiers saw with the spear satisfied them. He was already dead. There was no need to break His legs.

This is why Nicodemus wanted the body.

There was no doubt; He died.

He died, and….

…was buried, and that was the end of it?

That’s what the enemy wants us to think.

He was “dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.”

Someone has commented that the “behold” should have come before the idea that such a One as Jesus could have died….

That’s why He came.

Sometimes you will hear someone say that God died for our sins.

While I understand what they’re saying, it isn’t true.

God cannot die.

This is the ultimate reason for the incarnation. God doesn’t just “forgive” sin. His justice and holiness require that sin be paid for. An animal couldn’t do that, though its sacrifice looked ahead to that One who could. An angel couldn’t do it. There would be no correspondence between its death and the sin it was supposed to pay for.

Man sinned; man must die.

But “Man” is flawed, sinful, rejected. He has no currency with which to pay that sin debt.

His death is the result of sin, not its remedy.

There isn’t a single individual born of the union of a man and woman whose life and death can do anything about sin.

This is why God sent His own son, born of a woman, in the likeness of sinful flesh to do something about sin, Romans 8:3; Galatians 4:4. There is no Biblical basis for the idea that Mary herself was sinless or had been conceived without sin; she herself admits her need of a Savior, Luke 1:47. Why would she “rejoice in God my Savior” if she were without sin herself? She wouldn’t need a Savior.

It was necessary to Jesus be born of a human mother in order to be fully human, but without a human father in order to be completely sinless. It was also necessary that His conception be of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35, in order that He be fully God.

But not only is Jesus “alive”; He is alive forevermore, v. 18. Paul put it like this, Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him, Romans 6:9.

On the contrary, Jesus says that Hehasdominionoverdeath:“I have the keys of Hades and Death,” Revelation 1:18, emphasis added.

I think it can be said that we live in “perilous times.” I don’t know what’s going to happen in and to this country. I’m afraid the country of my youth is irretrievably gone. Regardless of who wins in November, January will usher in new and uncharted territory.

It doesn’t really matter.

Democrats and Republicans don’t hold the keys to the future, to death. My Lord holds them. Only when He returns to this earth will things be straightened out.

3 thoughts on “Revelation 1:17-20, Encouragement”

Amen to “Jesus holds the keys…” . Canadians are watching what’s going on in your country and in ours; we need to be watching for the return of the King, and serving Him while we wait.
Blessings ~ Wendy